I have a friend who brags and brags about not using chemicals and only using store bought spring water, not distilled (she corrects me), spring. I just don't trust this. What do you guys think? I am not passing this along, it's for my knowledge. She is beyond convincing. Spring water, if genuine, could have all kinds of stuff in it don't you think. She keeps complaining about her snails dying. I think that's a bad sign personally.

She was also told not to get plants because they would pollute the spring water?

Oh dear, your friend is not going to keep her fish healthy by relying on spring water!

It is true it does not contain chlorine and therefore does not need a water conditioner as tap water does, but that does not mean that it is automatically good water for fish-keeping. Pure spring water is often very hard, full of dissolved minerals and CO2 gas (which is what gives it its 'fresh' flavour) and therefore the pH levels can bounce all over the place.

More than that, it is an unnecessary expense and effort. Water conditioner does not harm fish in the slightest - you could overdose it by ten times the normal amount and it wouldn't hurt them - and therefore conditioned tap water is generally just as good for fish as spring water.

Thanks. That's what I thought, too. I just wanted to be sure if my logic held. And I had no clue about the dissolved C02. I don't think she does many water changes so that's why it's no big deal to spend the money.

Maybe I will try to talk her out of it for the fish's sake. This was LFS advice she got and to her that holds a lot more water than mine does after keeping fish for just 2 months. I guess I can understand that though.

I dunno... my tap water here SUCKS, so I use spring water now, and my fishies are much happier since the switch.

FTB

If you have very poor tap water - such as a very high nitrate concentration for example or a pH of 10 - then yes, it's better to use water from a different source as you are doing.

It's quite rare to find such bad tap water though and if you have a large tank (I change around 45 gallons weekly for example) then buying bottled water is not practical. The best alternatives then are to collect and pre-filter rainwater or to buy an RO unit.